Tradition: Swiss Mythology
Alternative Names: The White Virgin of Tegerfelden, The Enchanted Maiden of Tegerfelden Castle
Category: Ghost
The Myth
The Key Maiden is the ghost of a beautiful noblewoman who haunts the ruins of Tegerfelden Castle in the canton of Aargau, Switzerland. She appears as a pale maiden dressed in flowing white garments, with long, radiant golden hair and a jingling bunch of keys at her belt. She is often accompanied by a small black dog wearing a red collar and can be seen wandering around the ruined castle walls, collecting water from the Surb River, or performing strange rituals beneath the moonlight. Although she sometimes appears in broad daylight, her presence is surrounded by melancholy and enchantment. She remains trapped by a curse connected to her pride, the deaths of her rejected suitors, and the fate of the children who sleep in the underground halls beneath the castle.
One evening, a shepherd boy sees a small light approaching from the castle. It gradually transforms into the white-clad maiden, whose golden hair shines like a lock of sunlight. She fills a small jug with water from the Surb and sings a sorrowful song. When she pauses beside the bush where the shepherd is hiding, she seems to expect him to speak to her, but he is too frightened to respond. She sadly disappears into the castle moat. The shepherd later sees her repeatedly circling the ruins, followed by her black dog, and hears the keys in her hand ringing like silver bells. On another occasion, a poor farmer fishing beside the Surb finds a luminous golden lock floating toward him. After he foolishly throws it back into the water, the maiden appears and begs him to retrieve it. He obeys, and she ties one of its hairs to his fishing line, promising him good fortune in exchange for saying the Lord’s Prayer for her every week. His catch becomes extraordinarily abundant, and he grows wealthy. However, he eventually abandons his religious obligation and wastes his fortune. The black dog then emerges from the water and bites through the golden hair on his fishing line, ending his good luck. The farmer loses his wealth, descends into madness, and is eventually found dead in the river.
The maiden’s curse can supposedly be broken only by a Sunday-born child, who must be raised in a cradle made from a tree cut down on Good Friday and dried for a year. A woodturner who attempts to cut such a tree is given three trials by the maiden. She leads him through underground halls where ancient warriors sleep, followed by young men and women, and finally children guarded by a gigantic snake and an enormous, poisonous-looking toad. He succeeds in kissing the black dog and the maiden herself, but recoils in horror from the toad. This failure causes the maiden’s white dress to turn black, and the woodturner is cast out of the castle, his hair and beard turned white. He subsequently goes mad, calling for the maiden every day, but never sees her again.
Another attempt at redemption comes from a poor miller’s apprentice born on a Sunday. After being mocked at a New Year’s dance, he visits the castle and asks the maiden to dance with him. She accompanies him to the village, where they perform three dances before an admiring crowd. He then follows her into the underground halls, where she explains the origins of her curse. In life, her pride and vanity led her to reject many suitors by demanding that they ride three times around the castle’s dangerous cliffs. All who attempted the feat fell to their deaths, until one low-ranking knight succeeded. However, the maiden’s mother secretly poisoned the potion intended to seal their engagement, causing the knight to fall asleep before she had him thrown from the cliffs. Overcome by despair when she learned of his death, the maiden leapt to her own death as well. She was condemned to guard the victims of her arrogance. The apprentice must kiss the dog, kiss the maiden, and collect hairs from the sleeping youths and old warriors before midnight so that the enchantment can be lifted. He courageously performs the tasks but fails to escape before the gates close at twelve. The gates remain shut forever, and he is eventually found dead in a mill.
The maiden appears one final time to a traveler near the Surb River. He witnesses her riding a snow-white stag around the castle nineteen times before returning to the riverbank to comb her golden hair with a golden comb. She sings that another hundred years must pass before her hair reaches the ground, at which point she will finally find peace and ascend to heaven. The traveler watches in silent wonder, too enchanted to speak or help her. Only after she disappears does he realize that he may have missed his chance to redeem her and claim her magical treasures, including her golden comb, glittering headband, and silver fife. The Key Maiden therefore remains bound to the castle, awaiting the fulfillment of the conditions that will finally release her from her centuries of sorrow.
Sources
“Die Schlüsseljungfrau.” SAGEN.at – Schweizer Sagen. Reproduced by SAGEN.at. https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/schweiz/allgemein/schluesseljungfrau.html